3 TV SHOWS TO PREPARE YOU FOR LIFE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY

27th August 2017

Freshers will be underway for many new university students within the next few days and you’ll soon find out all about university life (ahem, binge drinking and late night clubbing). However, for those who’ve gained a place at either Oxford or Cambridge, term starts much later than most other institutions. This gives you plenty of time to get some last minute reading done (lol) or binge-watch all the latest television shows(much more likely). This is a light-hearted post I originally wrote for the Oxford University Freshers’ Guide, so it’s a little more specific than most but if you’re a prospective Oxbridge fresher and you’ve stumbled across this post (or simply curious!) then read on…

Without further ado, here are 3 TV shows to prepare you for life at Oxford University.

House of Cards

You’ll soon learn that students playing politics is a large part of Oxford life and you’ll almost certainly be coerced into paying £218 for life time membership of the prestigious Oxford Union during freshers’ week. There is no better TV show to prepare you for the antics of Union Hacks than House of Cards. (Note: so far there have been zero Union-related deaths.) This is the first original online-only to receive major nominations at the Emmy Awards back in 2013 and the show has lost none of its binge worthy-ness since then.

Orange is the New Black

For many of you, living in a confined space with a large number of people of a similar age to you will be unfamiliar territory. Thankfully, Orange is the New Black is a great show to get you mentally prepared for student life. Just kidding – Oxford accommodation is absolutely nothing like prison, quite the opposite in fact. Hopefully you will find inspiration in the protagonist Piper, a woman thrown into unfamiliar territory who learns to adapt to her new life. This is one of few shows in which the protagonist and the supporting characters are mostly made up of women and it is kick-ass.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

The premise of this show is pretty damn strange – a group of girls, who have been held hostage in an underground bunker for 15 years, are finally found and re-join the real world. The problem is, a lot of things can change in 15 years but clueless Kimmy is determined to make a life for herself in New York. This show asks all the important questions – “it is pronounced fort-ay or fort?”, obviously an essential part of your pre-Oxford prep. So far (at the time of writing, i.e. two years ago because I’m an organised blogger), there’s only one season, which consists of 13 episodes. That makes this season 312 minutes long in total. That’s only 5 hours and 12 minutes of your time. You have no excuses. (Now, there are 3 seasons, 39 episodes but that’s STILL only 14 hours and 18 minutes of your time.)

NB. This is, of course, just a bit of fun, and Oxford is a lovely place to live and study.

For more posts about my time at Oxford University, check out the following:

What a great selection! I’ve seen all three of these shows and each one teach a lot about preparing for university. All of them show people working together for a common cause. It also shows conflict which is a part of life and the types of strategies you can use to deal with it.

Lily Mae

My time at university (which was not Oxford) was most definitely like Orange Is The New Black…. mainly because it felt like I was in a prison and had a lot of sexism thrown at me. This post is so interesting to read considering Oxford is one of the most popular universities in the entire world. Comparing these rather different shows with the life of an Oxford student, it’s definitely something someone like me would never have even thought about before.

The Mum Diaries

haha i love how you included Orange is the new black in your top tv shows! But a great reasoning behind choosing it!

Lucie1979

Lolllll I love that OITNB is in there!! I love that show!! Great choices!!

It’s been 10 years since I left uni, so watching these series will probably bring a lot of memories, rather than preparing me lol! x

Jenni Grainger

They are such popular shows and I haven’t watched an episode from any of them

Jennifer Eastwell

I have never attended uni! I love Orange is the New Black though haha! Although I doubt uni is like prison I suppose it’s familiar being surrounded by a lot of people all the time close in age and having a strong knit of people by you

Lauretta

I’ve only seen 2 episodes of Orange Is The New Black and it was very interesting. Comparing it to university life in Oxford seems pretty exciting too.